Watching Deadpool & Wolverine and an awesome day trip to Oxford

Thought I would do a little recap of my last couple of days, as I’m writing this on 09/08 and as of 4pm I haven’t left the house today, so now is as good an opportunity as ever to catch you up on my first London shenanigans.

So I arrived in London around midday on the 5th, and spent the 6th hanging out, doing some cooking, and getting lots of sleep, so nothing too interesting there. The 7th (Wednesday) was my first day I actually had plans, so let’s just start there. Warning, this post might be a big one!

07/08

First up was a bit of an errand, as when I was in London a month ago I bought a gorgeous vintage watch from the Portobello Markets. Whilst in the Lakes I got a battery in it, so I do officially have a working watch, but unfortunately for me it’s slightly too small. It fits fine, just a bit too snug for me to wear everyday comfortably. So I took the tube over to Nottinghill and got off a couple stops early to take a wander back over to the markets. That area of London is the rich rich area, so I think I walked about 2kms to get there, but with how beautiful the streets were I really didn’t mind. The weather was lovely (i.e not raining) and the streets were very quiet, so it was a peaceful stroll. I was also feeling a bit couped up after the flight and then not really going anywhere, so it was exactly what I needed.

At the markets I was hoping to find someone selling jewellery (literally everyone) who would have spare links, or a way to extend the band of the watch. And of course with my luck, every stall had links for every brand of watch apart from mine, which was very helpful. Even though my watch search was unsuccessful, there were lots more vendors there this time, and another street had been blocked off for more stalls, so I spent probably a good 2 or 3 hours walking around and visiting all of them. I didn’t buy anything of course, actually no, I did get some postcards, which were probably the only thing there that weren’t exorbitantly priced.

That took me until mid-afternoon I think, and I didn’t have any further plans for the rest of the day so I thought I would just take my time and walk back to the tube station. And then I had a revolutionary idea. Surely in this massive city I wouldn’t be too far away from a cinema. Not really sure where I was walking to, I just kept walking around Nottinghill before I realised I had left Nottinghill and was in a significantly less-nice area, so I thought I’d better check where I was. Luckily for me, another 10-minute walk would get me to a Westfield shopping centre, where there was a massive cinema. Of course I wasn’t going to be going to the movies with Dad to go see Deadpool & Wolverine, so it was on my to-do list in London. That and the latest Quiet Place, although I’m not actually sure if that’s out yet or not. Turns out I picked the goliath of shopping centres, that place was massive. Like Karrinyup on crack. Weirdly I felt very self-conscious to be in a foreign shopping centre. I felt like I was cosplaying in a local and someone would point at me and yell ‘hey, she’s not from here!’  Not that anyone did anything to give me that impression, it was more that because of how similar it was to Karrinyup, it felt odd to feel like I should know where everything is, and be comfortable there, and then have the opposite experience. I made the mistake of popping into Primark, which I’m sure I would love on any other day, but on this particular day it did not go well with my already apparent overstimulation. I also don’t think I’d had anything to eat up until this point so I wasn’t feeling all too fabulous.

Although I didn’t really want to be there, I was on a mission in Primark to find a light jacket/cardigan that I could layer for the unpredictable London weather. I didn’t bring a jacket with me on purpose, I’ve got a raincoat and my winter coat, but nothing in between. What I wanted wasn’t hard to find, and you best believe I paid for that thing and got out of there in record time (before realising I didn’t have reception so couldn’t book my movie tickets, so I had to go back inside and sit in a changeroom for some peace and quiet whilst I exploited the free wifi). The tickets were booked for a session in 10 minutes, so I ducked over to M&S to grab some lunch snacks, then made my way upstairs. I had picked a lovely seat right at the back (I don’t think the couple a couple seats down were too impressed by my presence but anyway). I got to hide in the corner with my snacks and finally got some sugar into me. The cool, dark room was exactly what I needed, and as soon as the trailers started I was so chill again, it was great. And the movie itself was soooo good. I’m a big Deadpool fan anyway, so I was sure I was going to enjoy it, but it far exceeded my expectations. You do need to be across the Marvel-lore to really be able to understand all the references, and because I’m not completely obsessed with X-Men there were bits and pieces that didn’t 100% land with me, but the cinema was full of Marvel nerds so I definitely knew when something major was happening. I got all the Marvel references though, and most of the X-Men ones, so I was pretty proud of myself. Also I have a theory that the trailer for the movie should’ve just been a music video (iykyk) that would’ve been incredible. So yeah, I had an absolute blast, it provided me with all the serotonin I may have been missing up until this point in the day and was the perfect lazy afternoon activity.

Once the movie finished it was probably 6:30pm, and I walked through the neighbourhood to the nearest tube station, which I speed-walked through cause I was getting some dodgy vibes, and was soon back on the tube on the way home.

08/08

I could’ve spent today exploring a new place in London, but in true Lauren fashion I just had to catch a train somewhere else. On today’s list was Oxford! I’ve got a couple of day trips I’d like to do, and I wasn’t planning on doing any of them in the first days of being back in London, but Oxford was forecast to have some very warm weather on the weekend, and though the sun would be lovely, the humidity definitely wouldn’t have been, so I decided to go on a cool but overcast day instead. I had a walking tour booked for 2pm, so I had all morning to figure out how to get into Oxford, then hopefully an hour or 2 to explore before the tour started.

The process to get over was a lot less stressful than I thought it would be. I bought return tickets from the info area at my local tube station, and I only had to change once, which was nice. I was there in under an hour and a half; I think I arrived just after 12. The train station was pretty much right in the middle of the city, so it took no time at all to get to all the fun things. I’m not sure what I was expecting from Oxford as a city, I guess I didn’t realise it was a city at all! Which looking back was pretty dumb, considering the University in itself is huge there would be at least a big student population, but other than that I thought it would be a bit like a town in the Lakes. But no, it was definitely a major town. The very centre of town wasn’t all that nice, it was very crowded and the people there were a bit strange (there was a guy busking, but he wasn’t singing he was just speaking random song lyrics into a microphone to no one).

I thought I would wander a couple of streets away, where I came across the Ashmolean Museum, which was in a very pretty building and had free entry. Needing a break from all the people, I thought it would be a good idea to have a little look inside. I skipped right past the Renaissance Jesus paintings, (no need for more of those), and almost sprinted up to the third floor that advertised ‘historical textiles, clothing and music.’ Yes please, get me there immediately. Of course knowing my luck it was a tiny corner of the floor, but it still piqued my interest. Which is rare for museums of this kind.

They had gorgeous silk and satin robes from Japanese and Chinese royalty, which were just stunning, and beautifully carved Venetian violins from the 12 century, right alongside 9th century tapestry maps of England. I loved this floor, I spent probably an hour wandering around and checking everything out. The level of detail in all of the pieces was absolutely insane, especially with the clothing pieces. Unfortunately the photos I took of them didn’t turn out the best because of the limited lighting, but I’m glad the museum keeps them in darker areas of the exhibitions to preserve their light fragility. I get that that’s more important than me having nice photos of them, I but was honestly awestruck and it’s just a shame that photos can’t capture that. But I made sure to take photos in my mind, so at least I can remember how cool they were. Aside from that one exhibition there wasn’t much that really caught my attention, so I made sure to buy my postcards, then headed out to find where my tour started. I was a bit early, but I thought I could always check in then go for a little walk, maybe get a coffee before it starts. Turns out the entire group of 20 was already there with the guide, which confused me considering it didn’t start for another 25 minutes. Turns out everyone had the same idea as me, so we just ended up starting the tour early and getting some extra time than the others. Works for me!

Our guide Frances was really cool, she was an alumnus of the uni, so it was a lot more personal and she knew a lot more about uni life than a standard tour guide would’ve. We got to go inside a couple of the colleges, the chapels, the building where the students graduate, and inside Trinity Library (a Harry Potter location!) I was gobsmacked just considering the fact that people go here to study for 3 or 4 years, when I’m stuck with Curtin and it’s awful parking. I really liked that the uni isn’t really a part of a campus, it’s just dedicated buildings throughout the city. You could easily walk around Oxford and pass lots of it’s historic buildings without even knowing it, which I think is pretty cool.

It’s history and traditions are so cool, and clearly very important to the uni. My favourite tradition is one that’s held once every 100 years (when Frances mentioned this I thought that would mean it’s really important and sentimental), turns out it’s when someone (labelled Lord Mallard) walks around the colleges with a fake duck (mallard) on a pole and the students pretend to ‘hunt’ the duck. Then there’s this special dinner and it’s a whole celebration about catching the mallard. Apparently, it stems from someone running around campus in 1500 trying to track down a stray duck wreaking havoc, and it just stuck from there. Very strange, but nice to know they’ve got some sort of sense of humour. All the other traditions seemed very serious and dull to be honest, so this one was definitely the coolest. And it’s only the students in the All Souls college that get to do it, so I’d hope I would be a postgrad in that college, they seem to have the most fun.

After the tour wrapped up back in the centre, I went back to one of the stops on the tour to do a bit more investigating. A library of the uni had put together a small exhibition about the editing process of classical literature. When I saw this, I almost scoffed in a no way this is a thing, there could be no activity more perfect for me ever kind of way. I pinned it on my google maps and speed walked my way over. Luckily for me it was another free exhibition, and I nerded out so hard seeing first drafts of some books I have read, and how they differ to their finished version. It was such a spin-out to see the thin, veiny pages of Frankenstein, all handwritten and slightly soggy on the edges from when Mary Shelley would take the draft down to the lake to work on.

My favourite and also probably saddest piece I saw was from Oscar Wilde, who wrote the Picture of Dorian Grey (among others) who had to excessively self-censor throughout his writing career to try to prevent suspicion surrounding his sexuality. Throughout the many pages from his drafts that were on display, there were often 2 or 3 pages at a time that had a red line through them from one bottom corner of the page to the top, labelled ‘omit all.’ It was such a shame he needed to do this for his own safety, I spent a while deciphering the cursive to see what was so controversial he felt it needed to be cut. It really saddened me that he needed to self-censor, as the passages he cut were so well-written, so beautifully tender it was such a shame they couldn’t have been included in the published work. Although the writing itself I really connected with, it didn’t feel right to take a photo of it and include it in today’s gallery. I felt that if he thought no one should see it, it felt like a bit of an invasion of privacy to share it myself. Yes, I am aware it’s displayed publicly in a museum, and yes, it would have probably survived the cut if you could be gay without fear back then, but it still made me feel a bit weird. After the indignity of eventually being convicted of sodomy and sent to prison, it felt wrong to take this autonomy from him as well. So if you want to read the passages, you’ll just have to take a trip to Oxford.

After I felt I had seen and read enough at the exhibition, I had the option to check out a well-known market area that came highly recommended. It would mean, however, I would have to walk back through the city centre to find it, and that didn’t sound like a tempting offer. I was also pretty tired and felt like I’d hit a wall in terms of what my brain could absorb, so I decided to instead start making my way back into London.

My history of incredible luck struck again when my first train from Oxford to Reading was cancelled, the only train to be cancelled that day, and the next option delayed by an hour. I ended up sneaking onto a different train and heading all the way into Paddington Station (right in the centre) then taking the Elizabeth line back out. It ended up working really well, and probably took less time to get back than it did to get there.

I think that pretty much wraps up those 2 days in London so far! I haven’t really be planning much in advance here, just seeing what I feel like doing then doing it, which has been working out well for me so far so I’ll just keep doing that.

I’ll update again when something else interesting happens 😉

Currently MIA,

Lauren x